8 Key Steps To Building An Effective Small Business Website
Creating your website as a small business owner, with very limited or no understanding of the digital world, can be a very challenging undertaking. Hence, along with finding the best website design and development company for your business, it is also necessary to be aware of the key steps in which a website is built.
Enlightening yourself on these major steps will help you understand the way your website development is progressing and if or not all major important components are being taken care of or not.
Eight Major Steps To Build Your Small Business Website:
Register A Distinct Domain Name:
The domain name or website address is the point of entry to your site and brand. Here are some tips to consider when getting your domain name:
• Make sure it is easy to spell
• Keep it short and simple
• Avoid using numbers and hyphens
• Ensure it is memorable and relevant to your brand
• Try to keep the address broad considering future growth plans
• Make your URL SEO-friendly
Purchase Secure Website Hosting Solutions:
A website hosting company offers the services required to make your website available and accessible over the internet. Along with the right website design and development company, you also need secure and scalable website hosting services. Make sure the hosting services and their features align with your website goals. DreamHost, BlueHost, and GoDaddy are a few examples of popular website hosting companies.
The Website Portrays Your Brand Ideology:
As a small business, your website visitors must understand who you are, what you offer, and what makes you different. Hence, when you build your website, make sure to creatively include your business description on the homepage, preferably in the banner image. You can also add a separate 'About Us' page for people who want to find out more about you.
Integrate An Appropriate Content Management System:
Making sure your website design and development company implements the best content management system for your website as it will make it very easy for you to maintain and regulate the site in the future. Here are a few of the popularly used CMS platforms:
• WordPress
• Drupal
• Joomla
• Squarespace
Create An Engaging UI For Your Website:
A memorable, intuitive, and appealing website interface helps you ensure the user leaves with a positive impression of the brand. This also helps in bringing down your bounce off rate and increase user time on the site. Here are a few things you can do to ensure this:
• Keep branding consistent throughout the site
• Use visually appealing graphics and easy-to-read fonts
• Design an intuitive and user-centric navigation system
• Make your contact information easily visible
Optimize Your Website For Search Engines:
Your website will only yield desired results and help you achieve business goals if the site is easily accessible to your target audience. Hence, it is essential to ensure your website is SEO optimized, by taking care of important factors ranging from including useful content with relevant keywords to ensuring faster loading speed.
Create And Publish Quality Content Regularly:
Managing and maintaining your website is an ongoing process, and one way to ensure you continue getting the attention of your audience is to create and publish engaging and valuable content regularly. Share blog posts, updates, announcements, and more that offer some value to your readers.
Get a Website Maintenance Plan:
Managing a successful website requires consistent efforts. It means you need to monitor your site, conduct performance audits continually, and timely identify any issues that it might be facing. But this can be time consuming and if you are a small business owner, you should consider acquiring a website maintenance plan that helps you ensure your website is performing at its best at all times.
Wrap Up
Make use to follow these eight essential steps to build an excellent website for your small business. These steps will help you not only build your site but also manage it successfully in the future.